The present invention relates to an overcoat fixing device for heat-fixing a coat film for protection on a front surface of a record medium including a card, for example, an identification card, such as a company staff I.D. card or a student I.D. card; a bank card for bank related matters; or a multipurpose IC card, and a transfer paper outputted by an image forming device.
In a field of recent computer image processing, by using image information, character information or the like, which is retrieved from a computer, an identification card or the like is issued by a sublimation type full-color printer. Identification characters, such as "name of a company", "name of a holder", and "affiliation", are printed together with a picture of the holder or the like on a front surface of the card, and a magnetic recording layer which is magnetic-coded is formed on a reverse surface of the card.
In the card, such as this identification card, in order to prevent falsifying or altering the I.D. characters or the holder's picture on the front surface of the card, the front surface of the card is often covered by a substantially transparent film including specific patterns. As this film, for example, a hologram coat film is used.
FIG. 1(a) is a section view showing a sectional structure of a film ribbon, and FIG. 1(b) is a section view showing a thermally cut condition of the film ribbon.
As shown in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b), a film ribbon Y1 sold in the market is normally formed of a thin and substantially transparent coat film 202 with a thickness of approximately 0.006 mm provided on a transparent carrier 201, and a thickness of the film ribbon Y1 as a whole is approximately 0.025 mm. The coat film 202 is formed of a surface protection layer 202a, a hologram layer 202b, and an adhesive layer 202c, which are provided in this order.
This ordinary film ribbon Y1 is sold in a shape of a film ribbon having a larger width than a width of the card. Then, in a condition of being laminated on a card X, the hologram film ribbon Y1 is heated by heating means. Thus, with respect to the heated area A, the coat film 202 is peeled off the transparent carrier 201, and adhered to a front surface of the card X by the adhesive layer 202c. Accordingly, on the entire front surface of the card X, only the coat film 202 is thermally cut and transferred.
As described above, when each film is adhered to the card, due to a heat-shrinking rate in case of thermally pressing or cooling each material, the card is bent, so that manufactures with satisfying quality have not been available.
The present invention is made in view of the aforementioned problem, and an object of the invention is to provide an overcoat fixing device in which bending of a recording medium can be surely corrected in case various coat films are respectively over-coated on the recording medium, such as a card.